Ever look at the treadmill’s mileage counter and realize you’re only halfway through a run? And you realize the second half will be tougher than the first, which surely is not good news. That’s college basketball.

The first couple months are a light jog around a lake compared to the mountain trails that beckon the rest of January and all of February. Those hills will not relent.

But here’s a chance for everyone to take a breath, grab a swig of water and remember everything we enjoyed from the season’s first half. There’s so much more fun (and pain) to come:

Coach of the half-year

1. Gregg Marshall, Wichita State. It’s always feels great to choose a guy for an award when he’s riding a one-game losing streak, but falling on the road to a capable Evansville team is not going to dissuade us given what Marshall has accomplished against the sternest odds any successful coach has faced this season.

Marshall had to replace his five top scorers from last season, and injuries have claimed three of this season’s top seven. Evan Wessell, Carl Hall and Ron Baker have missed a combined total of 16 games. And still the Shockers have lost twice, to Tennessee and Evansville. They’re halfway to a 30-win season. Shocking.

2. Tubby Smith, Minnesota

3. Billy Donlon, Wright State

4. Herb Sendek, Arizona State

5. Leon Rice, Boise State

Player of the half-year

1. Trey Burke, Michigan. A lot of people, Burke included, wondered if entering the 2012 NBA draft might be his best move. There was such a dearth of able point guards that Kendall Marshall, an exceptional playmaker with limitations as an athlete and shooter, was chosen in the lottery. So why not take a shot?

Because it would have been dumb. Burke has established himself as a far better prospect than anyone previously imagined, demonstrating an exceptional command of the offense, improved athleticism and the potential to be an NBA starter.

“My biggest area of growth and strength is my lower body,” Burke said. “I’m able to be more explosive, take some hits I wasn’t able to take last year—be more valuable throughout the game, the last 10 minutes of the second half.”

2. Doug McDermott, Creighton

3. Mason Plumlee, Duke

4. Ben McLemore, Kansas

5. Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State

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Freshman of the half-year

It’s our award, so we’re excluding those freshmen (Arizona State’s Jahii Carson and McLemore, for instance) who were able to practice last spring and learn how to be college players. It’s an advantage these guys did not have:

1. Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State. When we informed Oklahoma State publicist Mike Noteware that Marcus was on our midseason All-America team, this was his response: "Marcus is a rare breed, that's for sure. He has been an absolute joy to work with. I haven't worked with a better student-athlete in my 20 years in this profession.”

Indeed, it’s part of Noteware’s job to say nice things about Oklahoma State players, but this was entirely unsolicited and in keeping with what scores of basketball people who’ve encountered him will say, notably those who coached him last summer with USA Basketball. Smart’s tremendous physical gifts are obvious to those watching him create, score and rebound, but he’s also an uncommon leader.

2. Anthony Bennett, UNLV

3. Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA

4. Nerlens Noel, Kentucky

5. Yogi Ferrell, Indiana

Best game

1. UCLA 97, Missouri 94 (OT). OK, so it wasn’t exactly a defensive clinic, but we’ve surely had plenty of those in what currently is the lowest-scoring college season since the basketballs were made of stone. Watching Phil Pressey deal on the pick-and-roll would have been a delight even if there’d been no defense on the floor—and he was on the losing side. What about Shabazz Muhammad’s 27 points for the Bruins?

2. Butler 88, Indiana 86 (OT)

3. Arizona 65, Florida 64

4. Gonzaga 69, Oklahoma State 68

5. Duke 76, Louisville 71

Surprise team

1. Kansas State. The Wildcats appeared mild in stumbling to two losses in their first nine, both by double-digit margins and against the only major opponents they played in that stretch. But Michigan and Gonzaga also are two of the nation’s 10 best teams.

Now that K-State is getting a chance to punch in its own weight class it is knocking out the competition: OK State, West Virginia and even Florida, which might be on par with the Wolverines and Zags. Bruce Weber has done a sensational job making this team work for him.

2. Charlotte

3. Oregon

4. New Mexico

5. Wyoming

Surprise player

1. Nik Stauskas, Michigan. By the consensus ranking compiled by RSCI Hoops, Stauskas was considered the 78th-best prospect in the 2012 recruiting class. Think there are 77 freshmen having a better season? Think there are 77 players, period, who are better? Stauskas didn’t even open the season as a starter, but rapidly demonstrated he is much more than a shooter. He can drive the ball to the rim and to a pull-up jumper.

2. Jordan Adams, UCLA

3. Shane Larkin, Miami

4. Alex Kirk, New Mexico

5. Jordan Loveridge, Utah

Most improved player

1. Russ Smith, Louisville. It’s to the point now where Rick Pitino’s postgame jokes about Smith’s unpredictability seem like a ruse to convince opponents not to take him seriously. Oh, but they should. Smith has progressed from a gimmick to a great. He still has a volatile game, a streaky game, but the mistakes that plagued him last year are increasingly rare. He has become a superb, disruptive defender and a clutch scorer. If Louisville is back in the Final Four, Smith will have his fingerprints all over the achievement.

2. Larry Drew, UCLA

3. Quinn Cook, Duke

4. Jeff Withey, Kansas

5. Victor Oladipo, Indiana

Most disappointing team

1. Kentucky. Is it fair to judge a team with so many freshmen so harshly? Honestly, we’re not trying to be harsh. Perhaps it’s just that if you look at our preseason top 25, almost everyone included is doing roughly as well as expected. Except UK. And perhaps it’s the bar that was set for this group of Wildcats by their predecessors. But it’s also giving up 40 points to a mid-teens scorer and losing at home to a middling Baylor squad. Kentucky can do better.

2. North Carolina

3. West Virginia

4. Texas

5. Oregon State

Biggest upset

1. Caly Poly 70, UCLA 68. It’s getting to seem the Bruins are good for one of these a year. The players aren’t intense enough, neither is Pauley—and there you have it. This game is becoming particularly hard to explain given that Poly is under .500 overall and only 3-2 in the Big West, while the Bruins are riding a nine-game winning streak and threatening to become the Final Four contender many expected when Muhammad signed.